NEW RENAULT FLORIDE (Feb, 1959)

The only car that keeps your teeth white! (and yes I know that’s not how it’s spelled)

NEW RENAULT FLORIDE

ONE of the stars of the recent Paris auto show was the Renault Floride, a new model from the makers of the famous Dauphine. With racy, Ghia-styled lines, the Floride will be available in convertible, hardtop and cabriolet with removable hardtop. The chassis is reported to be stock Dauphine. The Floride is expected to be on sale in the U. S. in June. The price will be $2,300.

And now that I checked wikipedia, it is indeed the same car…just renamed. “Floride” since the concept was born at a convention in Florida.

PoppyJoe says: December 22, 201110:54 am

Does anyone remember the manufacturer being pronounced Re-Nalt instead of Ren-ou?

I seem to remember a jingle on the ads that was something like “Re-Nalt (beep, beep) Dauphine.”

Wikipedia has a short paragraph, but I think there must be more to the story – anybody know?

Rick s. says: December 22, 201111:05 am

I bought a Renault Dauphine back in 1959 and when I saw this picture it certainly does look like one of those, albeit more streamlined and sporty. The model shown here was a little more than double the price of the Dauphine if I remember correctly. Even though I bought it brand new, it was by far the worst car I ever owned. And for financial reasons I had to keep it and use it for two nightmarish years! That thing was in the shop way more often than all of the dozens of other cars I’ve owned combined since then. And yes, PoppyJoe, it was pronounced reNALT back then. Now I expect I’ll have a bad night tonight dreaming of that beast!

Rick

Rick s. says: December 22, 201111:17 am

One more comment on the name pronunciation of Renault. As I said previously, it was pronounced reNALT when I bought that Dauphine. It turns out that I wasn’t the only one that had problems with it so shortly after I dumped mine in about 1961 Renault all but vanished in the U. S. A few decades later, they returned with some new models and from that time on the pronunciation was changed to reNOU. Nice try, Renault Marketing guys!

Rick

dergutie says: December 22, 20111:41 pm

The Dauphine was made out of compressed rust particles and some sort of paper product for seat covers. As a result, they disintegrated while you watched in the harsh salt laden Milwaukee winters. Its heater and defroster emitted heat about on the scale of a baby breathing on your leg. However, its heater was slightly better than that of the VW Beetle. There was something about French cars of the time which were loved and admired in France, but flopped miserably in the States. Perhaps they only responded to speaking French to them.

Hirudinea says: December 22, 20112:37 pm

So does this car also prevent cavities?

Toronto says: December 22, 20113:21 pm

Dergutie: Old French cars acted the same way in most of Canada, too, even if we spoke French to them. I think the exception was the R5 (“Le Car”) which for some perverse reason seemed to last forever.

Jari says: December 22, 20115:53 pm

Dergutie, Toronto: That would apply to any French car up to the early nineties here in Finland.

My uncle left his ReNALT Dauphine with my family when he left to work on a six-month round-the-world cruise liner back in the late fifties. It quit about two weeks into the trip, and mostly served as a driveway ornament from that point until it was towed away on his return.

The Dauphine was listed in a book I have on “the worst cars ever made” – the author described the car’s habit of “Gallically shrugging off its ignition wires” when it hit a bump.

George says: December 23, 20118:15 am

A couple friends had Dauphines, one went around a corner at 25 MPH and it fell over. They righted it and went on their way until about a week later it hit a curb and went over again.

The other one worked great for about 2 weeks then he took it on the highway and sustained 60 MPH for about 15 miles, then the head gasket blew. That became a habit and we got to where we could replace the gasket ($4.50) in less than an hour. That problem could have been fixed by putting big washers at the bases of the piston sleeves, but he sold it instead and got a ’57 Ford wagon that lasted about 10 years.

Stephen Edwards says: December 25, 201110:11 am

Duh… Its name even tells you not to drive it outside Florida. No wonder you had problems with it in…Wisconsin?